Opus Ending Explained




Mark Anthony Green's directing debut, Opus, offers a fresh perspective on the fervor of celebrity culture. When the A24 movie debuted at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, viewers were eager to see how Ayo Edebiri and John Malkovich's skills would work together. In actuality, Edebiri and Malkovich's performances have been cited as the most noteworthy features of Opus, despite the film's mixed reviews. Edebiri plays Ariel Ecton, a budding journalist who is astonished to receive an invitation to a once-in-a-lifetime event hosted by Alfred Moretti, played by Malkovich.

In Opus, Ariel and five other carefully selected people travel to Moretti's desert commune to attend a listening party for the artist's first album in thirty years. The young author is adamant about seizing the chance, but unlike those around her, she starts to see dark aspects of Moretti and his cult and control over the Levelists right away. Ariel's situation rapidly deteriorates as the movie goes on, with those who accompanied her starting to vanish and Moretti's actions for the group growing increasingly nefarious, culminating in a startling turn in Opus's conclusion.

How Ariel Actually Made It Through the Cult in Opus' Demise

It is immediately apparent that something is amiss when Ariel and her fellow guests arrive at Moretti's compound. She finally asks to leave, but is forced to stay for one last thing: a disturbing puppet performance called "The Tragedy of Billie." The other guests are attacked, and several of them are killed, adding to the already awful puppet show, which consists of rotting stuffed rats interrogating a puppet version of Billie Holiday. Only Ariel escapes, but she is apprehended later.

Ariel wakes up to see that she is strapped to a chair and that the cult members are preparing to consume tainted champagne as part of what appears to be a mass suicide ritual. However, one of the cult members apparently feels sorry for her and lets her leave before she can be made to drink too. The following morning, she returns with the police, who discover Moretti playing the piano while her friends' bodies are arranged on the ground and the Levelists are nowhere to be seen. As a result, Moretti is placed in jail.

Ariel appears to have a happy ending because the murderer is apprehended and she gains notoriety for her detailed description of the terrifying events. But in Opus's major turn of events, Moretti tells Ariel that he always intended for her to leave specifically so she would write about him and the Levelists and increase their visibility. Because they believed it was an effective way to spread their beliefs, the cult members had always intended to let Ariel live; she was just their gullible vehicle for doing so.

The Reasons Behind Moretti's Murders

John Malkovich's tumultuous and captivating portrayal of the pop star is largely responsible for Opus's creation of a very interesting antagonist in Moretti. Given that his songs are a little illogical, his dancing is absurd, and his costumes are extremely flamboyant, Moretti frequently comes across as rather silly. Since he considers himself the pinnacle of artistic vision, even though his art seems to be largely soulless, every aspect of his personality is obviously focused on garnering as much attention as possible. Therefore, it is somewhat understandable that his motivation for killing is similarly weak.

Moretti's main motivation for organizing the murder was to draw attention to his cult, the Levelists, and possibly attract new members. However, Moretti felt he had to plan the ideal victims, so he picked people he had grudges against in the past. Everyone who had been invited to his listening party, except Ariel, had let him down in some way, whether it was by taking a poor picture of him or saying something hurtful about him. Opus draws attention to the frailty of Moretti's ego and his purported art by using minor past problems as motivation.

Who Were The Levelists And What Actually Became Of Them

Though their precise beliefs and objectives are occasionally ambiguous and their actual plan is not disclosed until the very end, the Levelists play a significant role in Opus. Finding out why everyone gathered at Moretti's compound is one of Ariel's top priorities when she first gets there, and what she discovers places the group in the company of several well-known cults. The main focus of Level's religion appears to be aesthetics and perfection.

Because he strives for perfection and feels that his artistic vision is pure, Moretti is the de facto leader of the Levelists. He tells Ariel and her boss, Stan, that everyone can achieve perfection in small steps. He continues by asserting that achieving artistic perfection transforms people into Gods, albeit temporarily, and that he has done so himself with some outstanding songs. Thus, it makes sense that the Levelists would spend their days studying the arts and enjoying Moretti's skills, but there are also hints of their strange rituals.

Although the Levelists appear to be prepared to carry out a mass suicide at Moretti's command in Opus's climax, their fate is actually different. Assuming that he has concealed the dead bodies of all the cult members, Moretti lets Ariel go, but he later discloses that they are all perfectly okay. Instead of dying, the Levelists reintegrated into society to continue promoting their ideas and message in an effort to attract new followers and eventually take over the world.

An explanation of the true significance of Opus's ending

Throughout its 104-minute duration, Opus addresses some rather intense themes and moments. The film examines the extremes of celebrity fan culture through Ariel's point of view. Edebiri's Ariel represents the audience by pointing out the ridiculousness of both Moretti and his cult as well as those she is with, while her friends are nearly instantly drawn into his world and don't recognize their error until it's too late. According to Opus, a lot of fans are all too eager to follow their favorite celebrities mindlessly, and celebrities frequently encourage this behavior.

The movie's opening and conclusion also emphasize how pursuing fame can have unforeseen repercussions. Because of Moretti's actions, Ariel, who starts the film as a rather unremarkable character, ends up becoming a successful author. But Moretti knew she would choose to write about what she had seen without considering how it would advance his cause, and it was precisely this eagerness that first drew him to her. In the end, Opus makes Ariel and the audience question whether her fame was worthwhile.


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